River
Katun
688 km from source to mouth · Russia.
RussiaFlows into Ob
In numbers
Length
688km
Average flow
630m³/s
Basin
60,900km²
Drop
1,481m
from 1,640 m to 159 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
688 km of river and 51 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAltai Mountainsat 1,640 m
- 21 kmUzun-Karasutributary
- 48 kmOgnevkatributary
- 76 kmZaychikhatributary
- 76 kmOzyornaya Rivertributary
- 99 kmZelyonkatributary
- 112 kmBystrukhatributary
- 126 kmZaychenontributary
- 126 kmBiryuksatributary
- 171 kmKoksatributary
- 191 kmBolshaya Terektatributary
- 199 kmMulta Rivertributary
- 211 kmAkchantributary
- 219 kmBolshaya Katandatributary
- 221 kmKuragantributary
- 234 kmKucherlatributary
- 250 kmTurgundatributary
- 252 kmAkkemtributary
- 268 kmKaznakhtatributary
- 268 kmArguttributary
- 275 kmEbelyutributary
- 280 kmVerkhnyaya Inegentributary
- 290 kmChuyatributary
- 290 kmNizhny Inegentributary
- 290 kmTerebetytributary
- 299 kmInyatributary
- 310 kmMaly Yalomantributary
- 314 kmBolshoy Yalomantributary
- 323 kmKarasutributary
- 328 kmBolshoy Ilgumentributary
- 330 kmKadrintributary
- 330 kmAylagushtributary
- 356 kmUrsultributary
- 359 kmBolshaya Sumultatributary
- 359 kmKayanchatributary
- 377 kmBaytygemtributary
- 382 kmBolshaya Ayalatributary
- 390 kmUlyutatributary
- 392 kmSaralutributary
- 410 kmEdigantributary
- 444 kmBertkatributary
- 455 kmChemaltributary
- 467 kmElekmonartributary
- 493 kmSematributary
- 496 kmKamyshlinsky Waterfall
- 527 kmUstyubatributary
- 543 kmAyatributary
- 552 kmMayma15,428 people
- 556 kmAlgairtributary
- 576 kmIshatributary
- 654 kmPoskakukhatributary
- 657 kmKamenkatributary
- 688 kmObat 159 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Left headwater of Ob in Altai Krai and Altai Republic, Russia
At the mouth it carries 626 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.0 seconds. It drops from 1,640 m to 159 m, 2.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 60,900 km², about the size of LV. 213,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MaymaLargest city on its banks · 15,428 people
- Spichenkovo Airport (NOZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 212 km from the city
- On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe36 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Katun, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 42 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,600 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Katun: the basin in numbers
60,930 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 213,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 1,684maverage altitude of the basin
- 445mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -2.1°Caverage air temperature
- 19%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 48%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 43% Forest
- 7% Cropland
- 20% Pasture
- 1% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Katun: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 10Waterfalls
- 33Rapids
- 3Canoe put-ins
- 1Boat ramps
- 3Ferry piers
- 7Marinas
- 5River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Katun in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Kamyshlinsky Waterfallkm 498
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Belukha Mountain6.8 km away · prominence 3,343 m4,506m
- Korona Altaya8.1 km away4,178m
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Katun in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
ObRussia3,650 km12,500 m³/sTributaries (85)
Also: Chuya, Argut, Isha, Ursul, Akkem, Koksa, Sema, Kucherla, Kadrin, Kuragan, Bolshoy Ilgumen, Akchan, Kuyum, Elekmonar, Sobachya, Kamenka, Edigan, Bolshoy Yaloman, Bolshaya Terekta, Algair, Bolshaya Sumulta, Biryuksa, Aylagush, Margala
KazakhstanWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q723864) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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